Sound familiar? An important client email lands in your inbox, and three days later it hits you that you still have not captured the task hiding inside it. Or you spend twenty minutes every morning reading emails, manually creating Planner tasks and setting reminders. That is not bad time management, that is simply routine work nobody should have to do any more.
This is exactly where the new Workflows agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot comes in. You describe in natural language what should happen, and Copilot sets up the workflow automatically. No Power Automate, no complex rule sets, no IT department needed. In this post I show you how to set up your Outlook inbox so that it works for you, and not the other way round.
What is the Copilot Workflows agent?
Since the beginning of 2026 the Workflows agent has been available for Microsoft 365 Copilot, and it is a genuine game changer for anyone who processes a lot of email every day. 📬
You write what should happen in completely ordinary language. Copilot translates that into a working workflow that runs in the background. The agent is built straight into Outlook, so you do not have to switch apps. You describe your process in Copilot Chat, confirm it, and from then on everything runs automatically.
Important: The Workflows agent requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. The classic Outlook rules remain available free of charge.
Step 1: Open Copilot in Outlook
Open Outlook (the new version) and click the Copilot icon in the top right, the purple star icon in the toolbar. If you cannot see the icon, first check with your IT team or in the settings whether the Copilot licence is activated for your account.
In the Copilot side pane you will find the «Workflows» or «My workflows» tab at the bottom left. Click it to open the workflow overview.
Step 2: Describe a workflow in natural language
Click «New workflow» and type into the text field what you want to automate. Here are concrete examples that I use myself: 💡
- «When I receive an email from a client with 'quote' in the subject line, create a Planner task with the email subject as the title and assign it to me.»
- «When I get an email with the word 'urgent' in the subject line, flag it as important and send me a Teams message.»
- «When an email arrives from boss@company.ch, create a task in Microsoft To Do straight away.»
- «When I receive a newsletter email (sender contains 'newsletter' or 'noreply'), move it to the 'Newsletter' folder and mark it as read.»
Write your process the way you would explain it to a colleague. Copilot understands conditions («when», «if»), actions («create», «send», «flag») and targets («me», «the team», «in Planner»).
Step 3: Review and activate the workflow
Once you have entered the description, Copilot shows you a draft of the workflow, clearly structured in plain language. You see exactly:
- Trigger: what starts the workflow?
- Conditions: which criteria have to be met?
- Actions: what happens next, specifically?
This is where you can still make adjustments before you confirm. If everything looks right, click «Activate» and the workflow runs from that moment on.
Step 4: Use classic Outlook rules for simpler cases
Not every automation needs Copilot. For straightforward scenarios the classic Outlook rules are still the fastest solution. Here is the difference in brief:
| Outlook rules | Copilot Workflows | |
|---|---|---|
| Ideal for | Simple actions (folders, flags) | Complex processes (connecting apps) |
| Licence | No extra licence | M365 Copilot required |
| Setup | Manual, step by step | Natural language |
| Connections | Within Outlook only | Planner, Teams, To Do and more |
You reach Outlook rules under Settings > Mail > Rules. For anything that reaches beyond Outlook, the Copilot Workflows agent is the better choice.
Step 5: Turn on and configure Focused Inbox
Independently of workflows, it is worth turning on Focused Inbox if you have not done so yet. Outlook sorts your emails automatically into two tabs: 📂
- «Focused»: important mail from clients, colleagues, real people
- «Other»: newsletters, automated notifications, CC mail
Here is how to turn it on: click View > Focused Inbox. If Outlook sorts a message into the wrong tab, right-click it and choose «Always move to Focused», or the other way round. The system learns over time and gets more and more accurate.
Combined with your workflows, this turns your inbox into a real productivity hub.
Step 6: Manage and fine-tune your workflows
You will find all your active workflows under Copilot > My workflows. There you can:
- Switch individual workflows on and off (handy for seasonal rules)
- View run history, showing how often a workflow has been triggered
- Edit or delete workflows
I recommend taking a quick look after two weeks. Sometimes you notice that a workflow triggers too often or too rarely, and then you can sharpen the condition. A simple sentence like «when an email arrives from an address inside the company» can be drawn more broadly or more narrowly, depending on what you actually need.
Practical tip: set up the «meeting follow-up» workflow
Outlook Mobile recently gained a genuinely useful new feature: «Follow meeting». You mark a meeting you cannot attend, and afterwards you automatically get the summary, decisions and next steps straight into your inbox. 🚀
Combine that with a workflow: have Copilot file all the meeting summaries that are sent to you automatically into a dedicated Outlook folder, and at the same time create a Planner task so that you do not forget the next steps. That is a real win if you sit in a lot of meetings or are often on the road.
Conclusion and next step
Your Outlook inbox does not have to be a time sink. With the Copilot Workflows agent and the classic Outlook rules you have the tools today to automate routine work completely, and to focus on what really counts.
Try it now: open Copilot in Outlook, describe your most frequent manual step in one sentence and let Copilot handle the rest. You will be surprised how easy it is. 💡
Have you already tried Outlook workflows? Write to me, I am curious which automations are running at your place.
